


Whatever Works

by coldfusion9797



Category: The Magnificent Seven (2016)
Genre: Banter, Fluff, Love Confessions, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:49:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28101198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coldfusion9797/pseuds/coldfusion9797
Summary: Faraday and Vasquez end up lost in the desert. With nothing left to lose, confessions are made.
Relationships: Joshua Faraday/Vasquez
Kudos: 22





	Whatever Works

**Author's Note:**

> I came up with this idea as I was traipsing across a dry lakebed in the outback on a boiling hot afternoon. I felt like I might never make it back to camp but these two got me through it. Fanfiction is useful in so many ways 😂

The sun baked down on them as they traipsed across the desert terrain. They had dismounted their horses and were leading them up the narrow rocky gorge, hard stone underfoot, as they searched for water. The day had started out as a flight from the law, but it had become a battle for survival against the elements now.

Faraday claimed there was a waterhole at the end of this pass and Vasquez prayed he was right, but the dusty creek bed didn't fill him with confidence.

"How much further?" he rasped, throat parched with thirst. The day was a hot one and they needed water soon.

"Just up here."

"You said that an hour ago."

Faraday rounded on him, though the movement was not as quick as it might have been because the soaring temperature was making them sluggish.

"I'm not the one the law is chasing."

"So, it is my fault? That you have gotten us lost."

"I'm not lost."

"You just don't know where we are."

Faraday frowned at him.

"I'll leave you here for the buzzards."

"Neither of us will have a choice about that if we do not find water soon."

Vasquez could feel himself growing lightheaded, a symptom of dehydration.

"Keep walking," Faraday griped, pulling Jack's reins to get the stallion moving again.

Vasquez flicked the reins of his own mare, but she refused to take another step. She was done in, and unwilling to die for her, he let go and walked on without her.

Trudging up the canyon with heavy feet, stumbling over rocks, it was mid-afternoon when they reached the end of the path. Head pounding, Vasquez squinted up at the towering rock walls around them.

"Where is it?"

He could see no water and no way out but the way they'd come in. It would take hours to retrace their steps. Hours they didn't have.

Faraday, for once in his life, was silent.

"Where is it?" Vasquez repeated. They'd had one shot at this. There was no way they could make it back out of here alive without drinking first. Not in this heat.

"I don't..." Faraday squinted, blinking slowly. "It should be here."

When they'd started up this pass Faraday had sworn there was a permanent waterhole to be found, but there was nothing here except rocks and dust. They were going to die.

If Vasquez hadn't been so thirsty, he might have been angrier, but as it was, he didn't have the energy left to muster any real outrage.

Instead, he settled himself in the shade of an overhang to wait for the inevitable.

"You have led us to our deaths."

"You didn't have to follow me," Faraday defended, letting Jack go and settling himself beside Vasquez. "Let's just rest a while and strike out again after dark."

"Si," Vasquez agreed, knowing it would not happen, but not wanting to spend the end of his life in an argument. Because for all Faraday's faults, and despite the path he had led them on now, there was no one Vasquez would rather be with at the end.

Vasquez leaned back against the rock and closed his eyes, content enough if they did not open again. This would be a more peaceful end than he ever believed he would have...

He was woken by insistent shaking.

"Vas. Vas, don't die."

"I'm not," he said annoyedly, shrugging Faraday off. He'd been peaceful enough, but now that he was awake again, he felt his insides cramping painfully from lack of water. The sun was still in the sky, the temperature was still roasting hot, and their circumstances had still not changed. So much for a peaceful end.

Faraday was staring at him wide-eyed, and Vasquez suddenly felt bad for chiding him. Faraday had been right, Vasquez hadn't had to follow, he'd done that because the worst thing he could think of since Rose Creek was being separated from the other man. He really didn't mind dying, knowing that they were in it together.

And now that they were dying, he couldn't remember why he hadn't told Faraday all the things he felt for him. It seemed stupid to not have lived life to the fullest. With time so short, there was no room for regret. He couldn't go back, but he could still make sure that he died with nothing left unsaid.

"I am sorry," he smiled.

"For what," Faraday frowned. "You're not the one that-"

They didn't have time for things that didn't matter anymore.

"Forget that," Vasquez said, resting his fingertips over Faraday's chapped lips for a moment to quiet him. "It's not important now."

Faraday gave him a curious look, as his fingers slipped away.

"All that matters," Vasquez continued. "Is that you know there is nowhere I'd rather be."

Now Faraday looked sceptical.

"Not a saloon or a brothel? A cold, clear creek even?"

His vision was getting hazy, but Vasquez did his best to look into Faraday's eyes, to try to soak in every detail he loved about this man one last time.

He reached out blindly, trying to touch Faraday's cheek.

"Only if you were there too."

"Well, that's mighty nice of you to say..." Faraday said, trying to brush it off.

"Listen to me," Vasquez insisted, struggling to straighten up so he could look Faraday in the eye properly. He needed the other man to really hear him. "I want you to know that these last months have been the best of my life. Being near you, it is the only time I can remember having something good."

Faraday looked completely dumbfounded, and Vasquez couldn't help but smile, knowing his next admission would rock the gambler, but he didn't have time to be gentle about it. "In the end, I'm with the one I love."

Maybe, if Faraday could just say he felt the same, Vasquez could close his eyes this one last time and be satisfied, but it wasn't to be.

"Wait. What was that?" Faraday said instead, turning his attention towards the sound of footsteps coming down the canyon. Squinting that way too, Vasquez saw his mare appear.

" _Hola bonito..._ " he rasped.

She was a good, faithful horse and he was sorry she had to die too because of their foolishness.

Unsteadily, he climbed to his feet and staggered down the rock to meet her. Faraday stuck close by him and noticed it first.

"Vas, look. Her nose is wet."

Vasquez raised his hand and stroked her muzzle, finding that she had indeed been drinking somewhere.

"She found water," Vasquez said in amazement. Maybe they did not have to die after all.

Using the last bit of strength he could muster, he hauled himself onto the horses back, Faraday's hands under his foot to help him make it.

Once he was in the saddle he reached down, and somehow managed to pull Faraday up behind him, because being parted from him now was not an option.

It was too hot to be this close together, but Vasquez took great comfort in feeling Faraday's arms fasten around his waist. There was still life in them both and if they could just hang on...

He flicked the reins and let his mare choose the direction, she knew where the water was.

A few hundred yards back down the canyon, they turned up a hidden pass, the entrance obscured by a large boulder when approaching from the south as they had done before.

"I remember now..." Faraday drawled behind him.

"Very useful..." Vasquez commented.

It was slow going over the rocky terrain, with two of them on the horse's back, but she managed it well and took them where they needed to go.

"There," Vasquez said with excitement, as he spotted the sun glinting off a sparkling pool. He let his mare take them right to the water's edge, and they half climbed, half tumbled off her back, into the cool, wet water.

Lying on their stomachs, with their chests and arms submerged, they both dipped their faces in the water and drank. It was an undignified display, but Vasquez had never been so thirsty in his life.

Once he'd swallowed a few good mouthfuls down, he turned his head towards Faraday, grinning with relief, having the expression reflected back at him.

"Told ya I'd find us water."

"You found nothing," Vasquez dismissed.

"Oh yeah," Faraday laughed. "What's this then?"

The question was accompanied by a sweeping motion of his hand and a sudden face full of water for the Mexican.

"Hey!" he spluttered, but he wasn't upset. He was too glad they would both survive.

Faraday just laughed harder, so Vasquez returned the favour, sending a spray of water into the white man's face.

Once they'd had their fill, of water and horseplay, they retreated to a shady spot to let themselves recover. Leaning back against the rock, wet hair and shirt plastered to his skin, Faraday turned to him.

"So, those things you said back there. Any of them true?"

Vasquez fought back through the haze to recall what he had said, recollecting that in his delirium he had admitted to having feelings for the gambler. Surely, considering they had been on death's door at the time, his foolishness could be excused.

"I was delirious, guero," Vasquez dismissed. Back when he'd had nothing to lose it seemed like the right thing to do. But now, he didn't want to risk Faraday leaving him. He didn't want to live without the other man by his side.

"Pity..." Faraday remarked.

"What?" Vasquez returned, unable to believe his ears.

"I mean, I kinda liked the idea, and it would make sense of a whole lotta things, wouldn't it?"

"Such as?" Vasquez asked, needing to make sure there could be no misunderstanding between them.

"I don't know," Faraday shrugged. "How we get under each other's skin. How we stick together anyway. But mainly the fact that I haven't stopped thinking about you since the moment we met."

"What are you saying?"

"This... Us..." Faraday said, waving a hand between them. "It just works, doesn't it?"

Vasquez couldn't deny that they had fallen into an easy rhythm despite all the reasons that a partnership between them should not work. They were very different people, with different values and beliefs, but one thing seemed to motivate them above all else and that was each other. So the answer was yes, they did work, but would they work in other ways too? There was no reason to think the pattern wouldn't hold.

"I don't know," Vasquez grinned, reaching for the other man. "But I would like to find out."

Faraday laughed and allowed it when Vasquez leaned in to kiss him.

**Author's Note:**

> No matter how hard I try to write something serious for these two, it always ends up turning into fluffy nonsense. Anyway, hope it was still enjoyable. Thanks for reading :)


End file.
